The school where I teach has a motto. It goes something like this: College for SURE! We talk to the scholars every day about making college part of their futures. The thing is I work at a Elementary School on the West Side of Chicago. It a pretty high needs area with lots of challenges. I am aware that not all these kids will make it to college. Its something I push in the back corners of my mind, because although it may be true, that some will fall away in the midst of gangs, drugs, jail, school drop out rates, and side effects of poverty...I have to believe that its worth talking about. Its worth thinking that all these kids will have a bright future ahead of them.
In my class right now we are working on a project. It occurred to me that college is this lofty unimaginable idea to the children. I teach nine and ten year olds and college is this make believe place people talk about-like the north pole. And they would love to visit it, but its so intangible to a nine year old kid who may not have a single person in his or her family that graduated from college.
So I thought, hey lets make this make.believe.land more real. The kids have to pick a college and have to research everything they need to know about that college. Then they will present what they find. My kids picked all kinds of colleges..some that specialize in what they want to become, state universities, BIG TEN football schools, Ivy League. The list goes on. It was pretty hilarious watching them try to look up the GPA they need to get in, how much tuition and room/board costs, the majors, dorms, and meal plans they could pick from. OH the choices! The girls were printing out pictures of the dorm they thought looked 'prettiest' and insisted they wanted to be in a QUAD ROOM...oh little do they know what four girls in a cubicle sized room can do to four eighteen year olds...
My one scholar decided she will go to Yale. She map quested how many miles away it would be from her home. She came into class with the mileage circled at the bottom of the page and a map tracing out the endless states she would have to cross to get there. Of course, she says, Me and my family will fly...:)
She spent her free reading time that day reading up on everything she needed to know about the school. She sat their highlighting the facts and stats. There she was wide eyed and I could just see her world unfolding before her.
That afternoon we wrote to my friend who is a Yale alumni. She sat right next to me blinking hard and staring at my computer screen as I typed out an email to him.
She had a list of questions for him about Yale. My little nine year old scholar insisted I put her email address in the email-so he could email her information directly. I laughed, and we sent the email.
I know she will probably check that email every day until he emails her back. And when he does, her mind will overflow with possibility and curiosity.
One day she will be eighteen. 101 months from now she will be graduating high school. I'm sure it will feel like light years since the day we sat side by side in her fourth grade year-emailing my friend and googling about going to Yale.
101 months from now a 101 million of life's moments will have happened to this little girl. And I just hope she will remember herself at this very moment at nine years old. Bright eyed, eager, determined to reach her goals.
And if she does, wow I can only imagine her endless possibilities.
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